July 2006

Thursday, July 27, 2006 ‘Microjets’ may be the future of air travel Planes would ease travel by flying on demand, using secondary airports By Rob Lovitt MSNBC

Planning a plane trip? Depending on when and where you?re flying, you may want to consider hailing a taxi instead. An air taxi, that is. Thanks to a fleet of ?microjets? set to hit the market, hopping a jet could someday be as easy as hailing a cab. Air taxis, of course, have been around for years. Geared primarily toward business travelers, most use turbo-prop planes and smaller airports to provide on-demand service for regional travel. Now, though, forward-thinking flyers are hoping “very light jets” (VLJs) may make such services feasible for the rest of us.

Thursday, July 27, 2006 ‘Microjets’ may be the future of air travel Planes would ease travel by flying on demand, using secondary airports By Rob Lovitt MSNBC

Planning a plane trip? Depending on when and where you?re flying, you may want to consider hailing a taxi instead. An air taxi, that is. Thanks to a fleet of ?microjets? set to hit the market, hopping a jet could someday be as easy as hailing a cab. Air taxis, of course, have been around for years. Geared primarily toward business travelers, most use turbo-prop planes and smaller airports to provide on-demand service for regional travel. Now, though, forward-thinking flyers are hoping “very light jets” (VLJs) may make such services feasible for the rest of us.

The NTSB has now been called in to investigate that power outage at the Los Angeles ARTCC in Palmdale, CA last week. Safety board investigators will interview controllers, check tapes and go over other information to find out whether any of the 200 or so aircraft under the facility’s control were endangered when the computers, radars, phones and lights went out for about two hours. The FAA says there was no loss of separation among the aircraft that suddenly lost guidance from the ground when the power went out. But controllers on duty at the time say that’s not true.

The NTSB has now been called in to investigate that power outage at the Los Angeles ARTCC in Palmdale, CA last week. Safety board investigators will interview controllers, check tapes and go over other information to find out whether any of the 200 or so aircraft under the facility’s control were endangered when the computers, radars, phones and lights went out for about two hours. The FAA says there was no loss of separation among the aircraft that suddenly lost guidance from the ground when the power went out. But controllers on duty at the time say that’s not true.

Here are some scary numbers: $30 for a flight service station “consultation,” plus an additional $5.31 for each forecast product used. That’s the general aviation reality in the United Kingdom. How about $1.50 per minute for a flight service briefing in Germany? Or $1,000 for a private pilot knowledge test in the Netherlands. “In my situation, it’s actually cheaper to fly the whole family by airline to the United States, rent an aircraft for about 30 hours, and have a nice two-week vacation (including hotel and rental car costs) than flying the same amount of hours in Europe,” wrote an Austrian pilot to AOPA President Boyer.